By adding the universal year 2003, (2+0+0+3) = 5, to the 7th month of July we come up with the vibration of 4. The 4 month is a time for grounding and manifesting on the physical plane. The number 4 is all about producing tangible results in material form. With a solid plan of action, you can make great strides toward manifesting your goals this month. Look at your goals for the year and brainstorm activities that will get you closer to them. Then prioritize those activities and schedule them into your daily life. By breaking your goals into monthly, weekly and daily activities, you will find that even the largest goals become do-able. August 6-8: Compassion in Action. Venus in Leo is in a challenging relationship with Neptune in Aquarius from August 6-8. Venus/Neptune asks us to balance our personal desires with our impulse to serve the collective. Use this transit to open your heart and to discover how you can put your compassion and unconditional love for others into action. August 9-16: Focus Your Will. Mars in Pisces will be in a positive relationship with Saturn in Cancer from August 9-16. Mars is the planet representing the assertion of personal will, while Saturn represents the discipline required to bring things into form. The good news is that this transit is an opportunity to concentrate your will power and accomplish a lot. The bad news is that Mars/Saturn energy can sometimes bring up frustration or the feeling that your actions are being blocked. A powerful way to use this transit is to see how you are blocking yourself from moving forward rather than blaming the obvious external forces that appear to be in your way. It is through owning your projections that someone or something other than your self is blocking you that you can take action on your goals with marked determination and will. August 11-12: Unveil Your Passion. Venus in Leo is in a positive aspect with Pluto in Sagittarius August 11-12. This transit facilitates us getting in touch with what we are passionate about. Venus/Pluto transits ask us to speak out about our convictions or what we are "righteously indignant" about. Many people never discover what they are passionate about because a layer of anger veils their passion. Since anger is seen by many as an undesirable quality, the underlying passion is often thrown out as well. Venus in aspect to Pluto asks us to speak out about our convictions and heal any wounds we may have around expressing our truth or our passion. August 12: Maintain Your Center. The full moon occurs in Aquarius on August 12. For this next month, the emphasis is on learning how to detach emotionally in a positive way. The moon in Aquarius calls us to learn how to be emotionally present to others while maintaining our individuality and our own center. The Aquarius moon will also heighten your desire to find the "tribe" or community that supports and nourishes your vision. August 20-22: Open Your Heart. Venus will be at the same degree as Jupiter in Leo August 20-22. Venus and Jupiter are the most beneficial planets and together they bring expansion, joy and abundance. Use this transit to open your heart and to discover how you can put your compassion and unconditional love for others into action. August 22: Transform Your Sexual Energy. Venus, the planet of love, travels through the sign of Virgo from August 22 through September 15. Virgo is a sign that is often misunderstood in our culture due to various misinterpretations of its fundamental purpose over the centuries. The images that we have of Virgo, particularly Venus in Virgo, are the spinster, the chaste woman and the celibate. In other words, Virgo has not been seen as a particularly sexy sign! If we go back to Greek mythology, though, we find Virgo represented by the vestal virgins, sacred priestesses who tended the eternal flame in the temples. They were known as virgins not because they were asexual, but because they remained unmarried, belonged to no man, and were whole and complete unto themselves. The vestal virgins also knew the secrets of how to awaken the kundalini energies within the body and were knowledgeable about Indian yogic practices such as tantra. Far from being chaste, the virgins practiced the high art of sexual devotion and were masters at transforming sexual energy for the purposes of enlightenment. When Venus is in Virgo, you have the opportunity to look at how you are manifesting your sexual energy. Are you repressing it, denying your own needs? Are you in touch with the desire to make your sexuality part of your spiritual path and not separate from it? I have found this to be a huge issue with many of my clients and this issue is often expressed as: "If I can’t integrate the sacred into my sexuality, then why bother?" It seems that many people are just not willing to separate their sexuality from their spirituality anymore. This is reflected in the growing interest in tantric practices and other forms of sacred sexuality August 22-23: Channel Universal Energy. Venus in Leo has an enlivening opposition to Uranus in Aquarius August 22-23. Venus/Uranus provides an opportunity for opening the heart chakra by literally running high voltage through the heart. This is represented physically and etherically through the process of channeling universal energy (Uranus) through the heart chakra (Venus), as in Reiki. Allow Venus/Uranus to help you break free from any restrictions you may be feeling in your emotional expression. August 23: Harvest Your Creativity. The sun moves into the sign of Virgo on August 22. The reaping of the harvest that began in Leo now reaches full harvest in Virgo — a harvest culled using the discriminative faculties with the intent of doing it cleanly, precisely and with care. The Virgo principle involves analyzing and improving upon the creative output generated in Leo through discernment and efficiency. Our job during the sign of Virgo is to utilize the discriminative faculties of the mind and our discipleship to improve and perfect the physical vehicle so that it becomes a purified vessel for Divine spirit. August 25: Empower Yourself. Pluto, which has been moving in retrograde motion since March 23, will go direct again on August 25 at 17 degrees Sagittarius. Since Pluto in your birth chart represents where you tap into collective power or will, Pluto retrogrades are a time when you can reflect on how you are using your personal power. Do powerful people make you uncomfortable? Do you react strongly to any perceived misuse of power from those in your life? Do you often see in others a tendency to manipulate or control? If so, then the Pluto retrograde period may have been a time when you were looking at feelings of disempowerment in your life. Conversely, it may have been a time when you discovered and integrated how you can increase your sense of personal power. Use the power of Pluto direct in Sagittarius to blow off the lid of repression and inhibition now! August 27: Nurture Your Body/Mind. With the new moon in Virgo, our awareness is focused on taking care of ourselves on an emotional level. Use this month to find out what your body needs to support your emotional health. Maybe it needs more exercise, better nutrition or more attention paid to your diet. The new moon in Virgo helps you to tune into how you can nurture the relationship between body and mind. August 27: Expand Your Perception. Jupiter, the planet representing expansion, moves through the sign of Virgo, the sign representing the mind, from August 27 through September 25, 2004. Jupiter in Virgo emphasizes the need to develop greater discrimination and discernment in our lives. This can be likened to the Buddhist practice of mindfulness. Virgo is the sign of the concrete mind and on it’s own can emphasize more of the critical aspects of thinking, analysis, quantification, detail orientation and linear and sequential processing. With Jupiter in Virgo, we have an opportunity to expand our perception to see both the details and the whole at the same time. In the Vedantic tradition of India, there is a practice called "neti-neti" which when transcribed means "not this, not that." In this practice, one asks: "who am I?" After this inquiry, the seeker’s job is to eliminate all egoic identifications that cloud the perception from seeing the nature of the true self. Similarly, a great sculptor in India was once asked how he could carve such exquisite elephant figures from lifeless blocks of marble. His answer was that it was very simple: all he had to do was carve away anything that was not elephant! With Jupiter in Virgo, you can practice paying attention or being mindful of where your attention is focused. If we become too mired in the details of life, then it becomes impossible to see the bigger picture. But if we ignore the details, on the other hand, then we are not really present to what is happening in the moment. It is this "present moment" awareness that becomes our source of guidance. In this state we are no longer identified or attached to the constant chattering of the mind. At the same time, we can use the discriminative faculties of the mind to notice where our attention is focused and then use the mind to perceive the deeper meaning and wisdom of each moment. August 28-September 20: Internalize Your Experience. Mercury retrograde in Virgo is a call for greater impeccability in our lives in the areas of speaking, writing, self-expression and following through on our word. For example, many people experience Mercury going retrograde as a time when communication breaks down to the point that they won’t do or sign anything. The superstition is that Mercury retrograde is a time to "lay low" and hold any business or communications that have to be done until Mercury goes direct again. In other words, for many people, there is ample evidence to substantiate that Mercury retrogrades "foul" things up! It can begin to look like Mercury retrogrades do happen to us! The point of Mercury retrogrades, however, is to teach us that adversity often challenges us to internalize our experience, to deepen our understanding of our own nature so that we can achieve mastery in our lives. Mercury retrograde in Virgo helps us to see, through external events, at what level our Mercury function (or throat chakra) is operating. If our communication skills are lacking in any area this will be more than apparent when Mercury goes retrograde. James Jarvis, M.A. is a master astrologer, professional life coach and transpersonal counselor. Through his teaching, coaching and counseling, James has helped hundreds of people draw out and productively use their inherent wisdom and talent. For those who want support in discovering, clarifying and manifesting their vision and life purpose, James is available for astrological consultations and life coaching sessions by phone. For a brochure of his services or to schedule phone or mail order consultations call (831) 688-0574 or toll-free (866) 454-8199. Email: <jjarvis@lifeqwest.com> or visit James’ website at: <www.lifeqwest.com>. If you would like to receive James’ free email newsletter send your email address to <newsletter@lifeqwest.com>. |